The markets, having priced in a bailout of Lehman based on the savior of the much smaller Bear Stearns, learned the hard way what happens when overly interventionist governments change their policies on a daily basis.

FORBES: Book Review: John Allison's The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure

Amazingly, a large number seem ready to put the blame on themselves, and, as if to show that they bear the retail trade no hard feelings, they wander off peacefully down the road to do their shopping at a nearby Tesco instead.

ECONOMIST: An ingenious satire on supermarkets has Czechs chuckling